Regen
by Lightning Fox
Summary: The war against Sephiroth was lost, and the heros killed. The Cetra, not happy with this out come, change the past. SephirothCloud
1. Prologue Rain

Regen

Summary: The war against Sephiroth was lost, and the heros killed. The Cetra, not happy with this out come, change the past. Sephiroth/Cloud.

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII. However, my friends and I _are _trying to recreate Shin-Ra and take over the world. I'll let you know if we succeed.

Prologue- Rain

_a battle. magic whirling around. the strike of a sword once. dodge. expect the sidestroke. duck. a shout. Regen. a pulsing heal. don't look at me._

Reincarnation was not something that was new to her. Wutai believed in that, it was what she had grown up on her whole life. Of course, Wutai had also believed in the life of the warrior, and bringing honor to the gods and the leader of Wutai. That had turned over, after they had been defeated by Shin-Ra. Tourism had become income, so instead of being proud people depending only on themselves, they had started depending on the rest if the world. So it was only really common sense that if Wutai had gone backwards then their beliefs had too.

The funny thing was that she had always figured that if she would be reincarnated she would have forgotten her past life. Maybe that was a side effect of backwards reincarnation. Maybe, because it wasn't really a _past_ life she could remember it. Was it even remembering/ After all, there was nothing 're' about it. It had never happened. Maybe it never would, and she was just an insane fourteen year old girl who 'remembered' this world's hero as this world's evil demi god. Or because she thought that in a past life she was the 'little lady' of Wutai, when really she was just one more child that was living in the horror that was Midgar.

What she missed the most was rain. Rain, rain, rain. Beautiful, pure rain. Leviathan's gift to the land goers, or according to some, his tears at the fact that his people had lost their fins, and had forgotten the beauty of their under water homes. Well if the beautiful, pure rain in Wutai was Leviathan's sadness, then the rain here in Midgar was Leviathan's anger at the way we treated the planet, and how that in turn effected his oceans.

Of course none of this was ever mentioned aloud. Her parents, so determined to love he, already thought she was crazy because of all the things she premembered. After all, how could their daughter remember the legends and weather of Wutai, that this war had made them try so hard to forget, when no one had ever told her?

So the only time she bothered to premember was at times like these, when she had woken up from a dream in the middle of the night, after fighting an all powerful foe, whose face was always blocked by a flash of steel, a flurry of black leather, a flutter of black feathers, and a curtain of silver hair, and it always, _always_ ended up with bodies littered around, blue eyes glowing, and the feeling of thin steel starting through her back.

Thinking of glowing eyes, and the sleepless night ahead, Yuffie looked out her window as the filthy rain of Midgar slid down the glass, and drenched the rest of the city.


	2. Off

Regen

Summary: The war against Sephiroth was lost, and the heros killed. The Cetra, not happy with this out come, change the past. Sephiroth/Cloud.

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII. However, my friends and I _are _trying to recreate Shin-Ra and take over the world. I'll let you know if we succeed. I do own Icre, but nobody really cares about him.

Chapter I- Off

_pulse. flash. funny how easy it was to see. little red life streams in everyone's blood. on. off. pulse. flash. glowing blood. off. the once living body it came from. off. friend. off. family. off. as steady as Regen everything was turning off._

The next morning Yuffie was happy again. She woke up from her sitting position on her bed only remembering a delicate woman in pink smiling at her, and a pure rain pulsing down from the sky.

"Yuffie!" A woman's voice called up, "Breakfast!"

"Yes, mom!" Yuffie's voice called down. So strange. 'Mom' felt so strange to say, but 'mother', the two syllable word was more comfortable to say, reminded her too much of snake eyes, flashing insanity, and the talk of an alien mother. What Yuffie really, _really_ would have preferred saying would be 'Kaa-san', but that was really out of the question. Wutain was not something she was supposed to know, and more than anything, her parents wanted to fit in, create a life for themselves and their beloved daughter and not be arrested for espionage for Wutai from an overly paranoid government, or something along those lines, and it was simply not helping that their only daughter kept on calling herself things like, the "Great Ninja Yuffie"

As she ran down the stairs and hall to the dining room, she glanced at the wall illustrating a happy child with, to Yuffie, insane eyes. How could her eyes be insane if she herself wasn't insane, and here she was thinking like she had told herself not to. After all, in her mind, the first step to being sane is never having a doubt that you aren't.

Yuffie sat down for breakfast with a beautiful smile on her face.

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No chance for school today. Too much insanity. A good thing she sounds like her kaa-san. Mom. Not even kaa-san in her head when she was insane. Then the flunkies from Shin-Ra would come and her parents would pulse off, she would come home and find bodies littered, and maybe still with glowing Regen blood pulsing through them before it turned off.

Or was that her past life? Future? No matter, as she got onto the train to take her down to the bottom. Maybe not the best of idea's, but being seen on the bottom was probably better than being insane up top.

'No more insanity,' she scolded herself, 'you aren't insane, never were. You just have an awesome imagination.'

Looking around at the others in her compartment on the train, she blinked. Only one other person on the car with her. She blinked again at the serious man. Or young man. Maybe twenty? More to the point was where was everyone else? When she had gotten on the train there had been a fair amount of people, and there hadn't been any stops, had there? Or had that one brunet with the raggy hair and bandana scared them off. Should she be frightened?

Oh well. Even if he was bad news then there was a checkpoint just up ahead, and then, just like Shin-Ra promised, they would notice the 'bad man's' ID and take him away.

'No, better than the question of "Should I be frightened?"' Yuffie decided, 'was, "Should I hate Shin-Ra?'" Coming out of her thoughts she looked again at the man. Boy. Thing. He was staring at her. 'Did I say that aloud? Yuffie thought, 'If so, shit.' Grinning a bit, she waved at the mystery man.

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Icre smirked as he clamored to the train compartment through a window. Smirking some more as the few people riding the train seemed to be in a sudden hurry to change cars. Except for one, and she looked young, and not exactly all there. She was definitely an odd one. Why would somebody who so obviously _had_ the money to have an ID to ride the train right now be on said train at this time, go down to the _slums?_

After a short while she looked up and blinked at him a couple times, then got lost in her own thoughts again. But Icre was definitely startled when she said quietly, "Should I hate Shin-Ra."

Blatantly staring now, she once again noticed the fact that he existed, looked a bit flustered, then gave him a cheeky grin and a wave. He blinked at her, then moved across the aisle to the seat next to her.

"Icre," he offered, knowing that as one of the many resistance groups against Shin-Ra, he probably oughtn't give his real name... but after what she said, he couldn't be sure.

"Great Ninja Yuffie!!" The girl, Yuffie, answered, still wearing that cheeky grin.

"Ninja?" He asked, skeptically... well she was Wutain-looking...

"Yep!" the girl chirped, "Best one there is... or was... or will be. Something like that. So, anyway, in a blatant change of topic, whatcha doing, going downside?"

"Live there," he answered simply, "Got a night job and all."

"That's gotta suck an–" Yuffie broke off as the flashing red lights came on, signaling the checkpoint. Icre blinked and had to strain to hear her mutter, "Pulse on. Pulse off"

Blinking he asked, "Are you okay?" That was definitely odd.

Shaking her head, the self-proclaimed ninja said, "No, don't worry about me. I'm fine, really!!"

Slowly nodding, Icre said, "Well... okay... if you say so."

Yuffie grinned, "So! Where do you work?"

Icre blanched a bit at that, but quickly recovered and said the name of a cleaner's he saw on the way to the train station, "Squeaky Cleaners." The ninja giggled.

"What? It's not that funny, is it?" Yuffie just laughed harder.

"Yes, haha, Yes it is that funny!" She managed, "Just- hah! hearing you say 'squeaky' is hilarious!!"

Icre mock glared at her, "And why is that, oh great lady Yuffie?"

"You're too serious! You look like the sort of person who is plotting the downfall of all the evil in a world, not like the sort of person to say 'Squeaky' or work at some cleaners!" Yuffie looked thoughtful and added, "Oh, and the great lady isn't necessary. It's Great _Ninja_ Yuffie! Or, I guess, Materia Thief Yuffie..."

"Materia thief, eh?" Yuffie nodded.

"Yeah!! I do it all the time!! Or did it all the time... or will... Oh, whatever. Lets just leave it at yes!"

"And just how old are you?" Icre inquired.

"FoooooouurrrrTEEN!"

"You sure that's not just four?"

"Shut up. I'm plenty mature."

"Right. And I'm President Shin-Ra"

"Wow!! Mr. President!! You've lost a lot of weight!!! You look infinitely younger, too! And I must say, I love the new look!"

Icre shook his head, then whapped the younger girl lightly across her head. "Quiet girl! Before I sic my Turks on you!"

"Oh, no Mr. President! Don't do that! I haven't had a chance to steal all of your materia yet!!" The two of them laughed for a bit, until the train pulled to a stop at the station.

"Heh... Well see ya, then!" Icre waved, and started to walk off.

"Oh no you don't!! You, my friend, are going to take me to the nearest materia shop, so I can show off my ninja-y skills."

Icre stared blankly at her, and she nodded sagely. He shrugged, 'what harm could it do?' And led her off to the Sector 7 materia shop, a small, out of the way place that sold low level materia and probably did the best business in the slums... other than the Honey Bee Inn, of course.

"Ahem. Note the fact that right now, I do not have any materia on me. What so ever. Gaea, I don't even have any materia period!! I'm deprived!!!!!" Yuffie fell to her knees dramatically, then got back up, "So, anyway, that means any and all materia... heheh... all materia... ANYWAY! Any materia that is on me after we leave that store is indeed from that store."

Yuffie led the older man into the store, then ran up to the counter and started asking about all the different types of materia, before demanding a restore. Icre watched as she bargained with the shopkeeper wondering when she was going to get around to stealing any materia.

"Fine! I'll pay your stupid overly exorbitant rates! Here. Have your stupid gil," the ninja snatched the materia out of his palm and slapped the gil down onto the counter, then stalked out of the building, Icre following.

"All right, ninja. The restore doesn't count, and I didn't see you steal anything!"

"Ah-hah!! That's because you weren't watching my hands properly!" Yuffie produced several green orbs, and a few blue ones. "Oh yes. Go me. I rule."

"Y-you? How!" Icre stared at her, mouth hanging open.

"Don'know, I've just always been able to do it. I can also pick pockets, hack into lots of different systems, speak Wutain without ever being taught, and make a mean cockatrice gyouza. I'm just awesome." She looked thoughtful for a second and then held out several of her orbs, "You want 'em? The 'rents would have a fit if they knew I had 'em!"

"Hell yes I want them!! That's insane! How you can do all those things, I mean." Icre blinked at her as she froze up.

"You mean it?" her voice was quieter this time, which was a bit odd.

"Yeah! That's just insane!" He frowned as she winced, "Hey what's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing! Look, I've gotta skitter, 'kay?" Not waiting for an answer she turned around and skipped off, sing-songing, "Regen, Regen!!"

Icre blinked at her retreating back, then shrugged and walked off, planning to go find Fife, his girlfriend, to tell her about the odd little ninja.

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Yuffie grinned as she skipped off, singing her little Regen song, the weight of the restore materia in her pocket effectively cheering her up after Icre's insanity comments. It was almost funny how easy it was to get things in the slums. Up top she would never have even been allowed near any materia locked up in glass cases, let alone be allowed to... buy some. Of course this materia was no where near having Regen, something Yuffie irrationally needed.

Having materia helped out Yuffie's mood. It made her less insane . . . more purposeful, more, more_ hyper_. Which, while Yuffie thought that was a good thing, for some odd reason, other people didn't seem to think so. Giggling, dodging through trash and monsters, Yuffie decided 'Right, be awesome, be yourself, happy, hyper, and a little bit crazy, but never insane.'

Yuffie gasped as she made it to the small play ground. She had been to the slums before, but booth times in the more populated first three sectors. Grinning like mad, she ran over to the mog slide, and climbed up to the top, and looked around at everything she could see. Not much, heaps of trash, more playground equipment, and up above a looming sheet of metal, with lots of creepy looking junk and wires. It was ugly. The plate was ugly. The weather was horrid. The rain poisonous, it could cause _acid_ burns. The people were sad, Shin-Ra were bastards. But it was home. And maybe it was some odd premembered Wutain notion to be loyal to one's home, but, _Holy_, in that moment Yuffie loved it more than anything else. Balancing on the very top of the mog slide, on one foot, Yuffie felt happier than she could remember having felt in a long time.

Springing off of the mog slide Yuffie bypassed sector 6, deciding to go and see wall market some other time, and sprinted along the way to sector 5, almost getting lost in the maze, and almost getting blown up by one of those odd, splodey houses. Once there she almost regretted her decision. The place looked like it had been carved out of a mountain of trash. There was a huge, grimy TV screen surrounded by people watching President Shin-Ra make a speech about something or another that Yuffie didn't really care about.

Sighing at the lack of anything interesting in the sector she slipped out of thee crowd of people, and slid into a gap between a few buildings. She walked a ways, and then almost froze at what she saw next.

A beautiful two-story house stood on the side of a wall, and there was a garden. Imagine that. A garden. In this hellhole, something was actually growing. It made her love the city even more, and, as she neared the attractive garden, Yuffie could almost feel the air grow cleaner.

"Hello?" a soft voice inquired. The ninja spun around and saw what looked like a younger version of that delicate woman in Yuffie's dreams.

"'Ello! Sorry to trespass or something, but I was just like, shock! Flowers in Midgar! Sooooo... anyways, My name's Yuffie! You?"

"Aerith," The young woman replied. Yuffie blinked. Something about that just sounded so familiar.

"Cool! Is that your house? 'Cause it's really nice for the slums and all."

"Ummm... yes, it's actually my mother's house, but, well, you know..." Aerith trailed off and offered a small smile.

Yuffie grinned, "I think it would be cool to live in the slums, ya know! Up top it can be so over baring, just like, be here, do this, do that, don't step out of line, 'cause we're over baring ant-individualist bastards like that. So there." Aerith let out a small laugh and Yuffie smiled

"Do you want to come in?" Aerith asked, tentatively. An immediate nod from Yuffie, and Aerith lead them inside.

"Mother is out, so would you like some tea, or any other sort of refreshment?" A nod from Yuffie.

"Sure! What ever you want to make will be fine!"

"That would be tea for the both of us then. What kind would you like? We have a few herbal, a bit of green tea, and some spice tea."

"Ohhhhh... Spice, please!" Yuffie grinned loving the feeling of be welcomed and loved, and above all, sane.

She sat at the little table as Aerith busied herself in the small kitchen. After awhile, Yuffie asked, "Why have you even let me in your house? For all you know I could be some sort of crazy serial killer, who waits until you least expect it, and then BLAR!!! DOOM!!! WEIRDO KILLER THINGS!!!"

Laughing Aerith turned and said, "You wouldn't do that. I know. I just... do."

Yuffie smiled, "Awwww! I feel so loved and such!"

The tea kettle had just started shrieking when a knock came to the door, and without turning from her self appointed task Aerith said, "Could you get that? Only let them in if it's a black haired fool, okay?"

"Right!!" With a mock salute Yuffie skittered over and opened the door. Standing there was a young man, maybe even still in his teens, he was very fit, but not creepy body builder sort fit. He was wearing a basic white wife beater, and black pants with heavy duty boots that didn't look quite in place. He did have black hair, though, and blue eyes that glowed... 'don't think' she quickly ordered herself.

"Are you a fool?" She asked in the most sickly sweet voice she could muster. 'I ought to patent that voice, call it Yuffie Sugar Voice 5000 or something' Yuffie bit her tongue to stop herself from laughing .

"Wha-?!" The older man stared open mouthed at her, "Who're you?!"

Still in Yuffie Sugar Mode, she said, "I am nought but the one who does guard this door, so again I must ask, are you a fool?"

"No!! I'm not!" The black haired man almost whined, "Aerith!! Why is there a random kid guarding your door!! Tell her to let me in!!"

Giggling, Aerith stepped out from the kitchen, "Go ahead and let him in Yuffie, that's the right fool, all right."

As Yuffie stepped aside the man whined, "Aerith! Am not!! Am not, am not, am not!!!!!"

"Right! Of course not, anyway, Zack, this is Yuffie; Yuffie, this is Zack, my boyfriend."

"'Ello, then!" _avoid his eyes. don't look. never look._

"Yo!" Zack grinned, trying to catch her eyes.

Noticing the slight tension between the two, Aerith ushered them over to sit at the dining room table and poured them both some tea.

Time passed, Yuffie had no idea how much, but she did learn that drinking tea and chatting with friends, in a beautiful warm house with a gorgeous garden outside was one of the most peaceful and fun experiences that she had lived in her... what, like thirty years of being alive?

'No,' she told herself, 'lets not think like that. Fourteen years. That's all. That's it, no more, especially from an imagined lifetime.' A regular beeping noise interrupted her thoughts.

"Oh SHIT!!" Zack jumped up from his seat, "Sorry, Aerith gotta go! SOLDIER and all!" He leaned down and gave Aerith a soft kiss on her forehead.

"I understand, don't worry!" Aerith smiled, "While you're at it, bring up Yuffie. She's a plate dweller"

"Awww... You say it like it's a bad thing," Yuffie whined

"There, there kid. Don't worry Aerith, I'll take care of her!"

The journey back to the station was boring. No random exploding houses this time. Guess they sensed some sort of SOLDIER-y vibes from Zack. The clock at the station read 5:00. Yuffie winced. Her parents were going to be so pissed.

Zack turned to see what was wrong and caught her eyes for a split second.

_thud. spark. crash. spark. pulse. flash. pulse. keep to the beat of the Regen. glowing blue eyes. concern. dont_ _look. want to shout. just keep to the beat of the Regen. dont look. shout. pulse off. cry. keep to the beat of the Regen._

Yuffie tore her eyes away, thanking Holy when the train arrived quickly.

Zack made his way to where the young ninja was sitting, and was confused when she refused to look up. "Hey, sorry... what's wrong, Yuf?" he asked quietly.

No answer. Zack sighed, and the two sat there in a kind of awkward silence, until the check point lights flashed on.

Zack blinked as he heard Yuffie murmur, "pulse off,"

"Yuf, what's wrong?" He tried again.

"Regen" was the only answer that he received, but it was enough to confuse him. Regen was a high level healing spell, that not many people knew about. Hell, some cadets didn't even know about it, and they were supposed to.

"Ja." Zack looked up. Ah, the sector three lights were on.

"See ya!" he called at her back, Yuffie, turned, grinned, and waved before running off.

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Ahem. Foxykinz here (my laptop just tried to tell me to spell that 'Physicians' snicker)

Nee-ways. This is my first fic that I have ever bothered to type up. I think it's special, just because of the fact that I did bother to type it up. Please tell me what _you_ think. hinthint

Ummm. Right. Icre. He's probably never going to show up again. I mainly had him show up to illustrate how Yuffie acts around random people. Aaaand... well I might have him show up again. And die. sweat


End file.
